No guns fired on Cap Ferret
The Wermacht long since gone away
Horizon Beach is at peace today
Its bunkers stare sightless out to sea
Or slump to face down into sand
No threat of Allied troops to land
Germans, English, Dutch or French
Have brought their children here to play
Kids who must barely understand
The point of this Atlantic Wall
How great-grandparents heard the call
To war, and came here not to swim
Or read, or lie beneath the sun
Instead to fight, to die and kill
And all for what? For one man's will.

In places not so far away
Others hear that same call today
Another man's will has stirred the pot
Of barbarism, fear and hate
On other beaches, in other fields
Men in bunkers fly the drones
And do their best to devastate
Their neighbours' houses, schools and farms
Does that man think his words of power
Could sway the sun to stop its course
Stay buried in dark, so miss the day?
Yet cunning lies repeatedly
Make nations rise and clash in war
Forget the lessons learned before
As if this is what all our lives are for.

But everything must one day end
In time each crazy leader falls
His people wake up from their dream
Shake their heads and mourn their dead
Return to their demolished homes
And start to build their lives again
Guns are spiked and troops demobbed
Disused bunkers sink in sand
Old enemies meet again as friends
Yesterday's struggles now no more
Than a history class, a forgotten war
And at long long last there comes a day
When children on a beach can say
"No guns fired on Cap Ferret"